Editorial: Racial disparity in justice system must end

If justice is supposed to be blind, why is there such a disparity among the skin color of prison inmates?

In Wisconsin, blacks make up only 6 percent of the general population but 45 percent of the adult inmates, according to census and state correctional data. Meanwhile, whites make up 86 percent of the state's population but just 43 percent of its adult prison population.

This ranks Wisconsin second in the country for the state with the number of blacks per capita in prison. The problem isn't just endemic to our large metro areas. The Fox Cities saw the same disparity. Blacks made up at least 14 percent of those sentenced to prison in the Winnebago and Outagamie county court systems from 2003 to 2005, while making up 1 percent of the counties' overall population.

The information has come to light in the form of a report from a 24-member commission Gov. Jim Doyle set up last March to get to the heart of the racial disparity in the justice system. The group also was charged with finding solutions.

In the report, which was released earlier this month, the group did just that, ending up with 50 recommendations, ranging from increasing drug treatment as an alternative to prison to returning 17-year-olds to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.

Commissioner Pamela Oliver, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist, notes that many of the recommendations are feasible.

"It's a matter of whether we want to do it," she said. "Some changes would be more difficult than others."

Much of the focus was on the drug part of the prison picture. By the late 1990s, most new prison sentences of blacks were for drug offenses, while more serious crimes declined. Yet, the commission cited a 2003 federal study that found young whites self-reported illegal drug use at a higher rate than blacks. And blacks are 11 more times likely than whites to get a prison sentence for marijuana possession.

The commission's recommendations included increased funding for substance abuse treatment and programming aimed at reducing drug use. The commission also suggested a state role in assisting local courts in developing drug treatment courts and other alternatives.

All of these are laudable goals, but the problem will take the effort of all of our communities to solve.

We suggest looking at the ways minorities are arrested in the first place and, just as importantly, the way the prisoners are prepared for the transition back into society - to hopefully end of the cycle of incarceration.

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Editorial: Racial disparity in justice system must end

If justice is supposed to be blind, why is there such a disparity among the skin color of prison inmates?In Wisconsin, blacks make up only 6 percent of the general population but 45 percent of the

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